USA, NJ: Demented Brewery to open in Middlesex by mid-April

The best thing that ever happened to Tom Zuber was losing his job in January.

That allowed the software engineer to pursue full-time his dream — his "passion"— of opening his own Demented Brewery, just a few months after he was laid off from a New York company that downsized, mycentraljersey.com reported on March 22.

By mid-April, if all goes well, the first kegs of his Double Dementia beer will be rolling out of the "rustic" building on Lincoln Boulevard in Middlesex that will be Zuber's brewery. He found the building on Craig's List.

The Double Dementia kegs will be the first beer brewed by Zuber's Demented Brewery, a Double IPA with an 85 IBU.

Zuber is hoping that his operation — "you can call it a craft brewery or a microbrewery" — will ride the growing wave of popularity of beers that don't have the money to advertise on the Super Bowl but are slowly and steadily eroding the popularity of national brands.

According to the Brewers Association, in 2013, New Jersey had 26 craft breweries that produced 48,996 barrels of beer. That works out to .2 gallons per adult, which ranks New Jersey 48th of the 50 states in craft beer consumption.

But the number of craft breweries in New Jersey is on a steady rise, though the state still prefers national brands that connoisseurs say lack character.

"The New Jersey beer scene is rapidly growing after many years of dormancy," said John Holl, the author of the popular "Draft Picks" column that appears every Wednesday in this newspaper and MyCentralJersey.com. "We need more breweries in the state, making clean, flavorful ales and lager. It seems that Middlesex County is lucky to be getting another in its ranks."

25 March, 2015